The Independent Woman and the Metrosexual Man

Written by Advice Diva

Continued from page 1 Suddenly, roles that we are used to having our mates fill are no longer being filled. The metrosexual is now asking why he has to pay for every date, open doors and pick a woman up at her door since women are now so independent and financially equal. Yet these men still secretly yearn for that woman who will do housework and raise children just like mom did. The independent woman has become too afraid to give back that independence she worked so hard for only to begin relying more on a man than herself. Why should she when danger still lies of being tossed aside one day? Yet, in her heart, she also desires manly man who will sweep her off of her feet and take away all of her problems, just like her daddy once did. We have now entered what appears to be a never ending cycle that can only be broken by trust. The once praised nuclear family with hard working father and stay at home mother is slowly dissipating. From now on, men and women will be taking on more equal roles in relationships and families. The question is: when will we become comfortable enough to let it happen?

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The Advice Diva has written three self-help guides on relationships and dating which can be found at http://www.advicediva.com She also hosts an online advice column which is completely free of charge. The Diva does not claim to be an expert in any field. However, she has the ability to understand relationhips through past experience and her incredible insight.

Overwhelmed and Overworked: The Myth of American Productivity

Written by Virginia Bola, PsyD

Continued from page 1

The American worker, surveys clearly show, is becoming overwhelmed, over-tired, and fed up. Access rates for outpatient mental health services rise steadily each year. Family disruptions include increased estrangement, divorce, emotional child neglect, and domestic violence. Health problems multiply, fueled by fatigue, stress, and a lack of time for self-care. In vaunted new technical world, where leisure time was to be expanded to historic proportions, we are working longer, harder, and more diligently than ever.

Where can we look for answers?

We can look at ourselves, identify our priorities, and learn to spend our time on what is important to us and let rest go. More critically, we can speak up to make sure that social legislation and tax code create similar priorities: to reward those companies who staff adequately and flexibly and provide benefits and resources to their employees. At same time, we need to negatively impact companies who pursue such activities as job outsourcing, retiering of job titles to avoid overtime costs, dependence on temporary (usually none-benefited) labor, and quiet acceptance of third world manufacturing of their products under sordid conditions, use of child labor, and payment of slave wages.

CEO salaries are running more than 130 times median worker salary. Viewing ethical and procedural problems of major corporate figures, now mired in legal system, Americans must start to ask whether equality and opportunity for all is still a viable creed.

Virginia Bola is a licensed clinical psychologist with deep interests in Social Psychology and politics. She has performed therapeutic services for more than 20 years and has studied the results of cultural forces and employment on the individual.She is the author of an interactive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The worker's Edge. She can be reached at http://www.virginiabola.com